Patent literatures 1 and 2 mentioned below disclose examples of plasma processing apparatuses. Each of these plasma processing apparatuses carries out plasma processing such as plasma dicing and plasma asking on a substrate in a state of holing the substrate on a transfer carrier constituted of an annular frame and a holding sheet. At the time of the plasma processing, both the annular frame and the holding sheet are covered by a cover so that each of the annular frame and the holding sheet is not exposed to plasma. Further, at the time of the plasma processing, the transfer carrier holding the substrate is electrostatically attracted and adhered to a stage having being cooled, whereby the transfer carrier is cooled. Then, when the plasma processing terminates, the electrostatic attraction is cancelled and destaticizing processing is stated. In the destaticizing processing, destaticizing gas is introduced into a processing chamber and discharging is performed in a state that the electrostatic attraction is cancelled. Thus, electric charges generated by the discharging is irradiated on a surface of the subject and a surface of the transfer carrier, thereby eliminating (destaticizing) electric charges accumulated in the subject and the transfer carrier during the plasma processing and remaining in the subject and the transfer carrier after the plasma processing. By the destaticizing processing, a residual attraction force for attracting the transfer carrier to the stage is reduced and hence the transfer carrier can be separated from the stage easily.
Patent Literature 1 is Japanese Patent No. 4858395, and Patent Literature 2 is U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0238073.